[Paul Spotts]

Halloween night, Oct 31st 1986. Being too old too trick or treat and having the fastest car in my town, it was a great night to race my 68 Firebird. A friend of mine, Ed from Philadelphia, also wanted to go to Atco, NJ for some runs in his 74 SD 455 T/A. It was a perfect Friday night for racing. I had previously run 11.30’s with slicks, but that night I had to run street tires. I could only get the Firebird to run 12 flat – but was still having a ball wasting nearly a second off the line going sideways. My friend Ed was doing well with his SD running high 12’s.
All fun ended with my last pass of the evening. The Bird ran strong, but after the traps, the car backfired. Looking between the cowl and the hood in the shut down area, I saw a bright light. Great - my car is on fire - I remember saying to myself. I brought it to a stop at the end of the track and jumped out to pop the hood. As soon as I went to lift the hood – a 6 foot flame shot at my face right out the Mopar style hood scoop. I literally ran the opposite direction realizing my car was on fire. Turning back and noticing the flame gone, I ran back to once again pop the hood. Another hugh flame met my face. I yelled “fine” and ran away again. At this time the under hood area was burning and track personal showed up with fire extinguishers. About 7 extinguishers were emptied with my car still on fire. I painfully watched the car catch on fire from the interior to the gas tank blowing up. Fear was in every ones face. The horn started blasting, wipers went back and forth and all the lights went on and off. At this time Ed made his way down track and watching said my car was possessed – it was the freakiest thing I’ve seen – and it was Halloween night. All 4 tires burst and the flames were at least 20 feet high. The feeling in my stomach was something I never felt before. It took 20 minutes for a fire truck to arrive. At that time I had no car left. The carburetor completely melted and there was no paint left, no glass, no spoiler, no tires – just melted metal.
My 68 Firebird was driven everyday. It was my only ride and I was seen in my town driving the car with slicks and open headers more then once. The 400 engine was my second motor I built and the ported #48’s, RAIV cam with 1.65 rockers on the intake and 1.5 on the exhaust, TH400 with stock converter and 4.11 12 bolt ran so well. I beat the hell out of that car and it took it. The car was pretty wild looking with flared quarters, glass hood and 8 blue dots in the tail light lens. I had no problem picking up girls with this car – and even met my ex wife while cruising the streets. I went from such a high to such a low so fast.
Every Halloween night, I think back to 1986 and think of that strange and sad time. I thought my Pontiac racing was done for good. So glad I never gave up.

Injection is nice but I'd rather be blown as well on alcohol,with a touch of Nitromethane - stirred not shaken!

[Paul Spotts]

Halloween night, Oct 31st 1986. Being too old too trick or treat and having the fastest car in my town, it was a great night to race my 68 Firebird. A friend of mine, Ed from Philadelphia, also wanted to go to Atco, NJ for some runs in his 74 SD 455 T/A. It was a perfect Friday night for racing. I had previously run 11.30’s with slicks, but that night I had to run street tires. I could only get the Firebird to run 12 flat – but was still having a ball wasting nearly a second off the line going sideways. My friend Ed was doing well with his SD running high 12’s.
All fun ended with my last pass of the evening. The Bird ran strong, but after the traps, the car backfired. Looking between the cowl and the hood in the shut down area, I saw a bright light. Great - my car is on fire - I remember saying to myself. I brought it to a stop at the end of the track and jumped out to pop the hood. As soon as I went to lift the hood – a 6 foot flame shot at my face right out the Mopar style hood scoop. I literally ran the opposite direction realizing my car was on fire. Turning back and noticing the flame gone, I ran back to once again pop the hood. Another hugh flame met my face. I yelled “fine” and ran away again. At this time the under hood area was burning and track personal showed up with fire extinguishers. About 7 extinguishers were emptied with my car still on fire. I painfully watched the car catch on fire from the interior to the gas tank blowing up. Fear was in every ones face. The horn started blasting, wipers went back and forth and all the lights went on and off. At this time Ed made his way down track and watching said my car was possessed – it was the freakiest thing I’ve seen – and it was Halloween night. All 4 tires burst and the flames were at least 20 feet high. The feeling in my stomach was something I never felt before. It took 20 minutes for a fire truck to arrive. At that time I had no car left. The carburetor completely melted and there was no paint left, no glass, no spoiler, no tires – just melted metal.
My 68 Firebird was driven everyday. It was my only ride and I was seen in my town driving the car with slicks and open headers more then once. The 400 engine was my second motor I built and the ported #48’s, RAIV cam with 1.65 rockers on the intake and 1.5 on the exhaust, TH400 with stock converter and 4.11 12 bolt ran so well. I beat the hell out of that car and it took it. The car was pretty wild looking with flared quarters, glass hood and 8 blue dots in the tail light lens. I had no problem picking up girls with this car – and even met my ex wife while cruising the streets. I went from such a high to such a low so fast.
Every Halloween night, I think back to 1986 and think of that strange and sad time. I thought my Pontiac racing was done for good. So glad I never gave up.

Injection is nice but I'd rather be blown as well on alcohol,with a touch of Nitromethane - stirred not shaken!

[Banditone]

PAUL--YOU'VE HAD YOUR SHARE. Can't keep a good PONTIACER down for long.

[Rick Lightfoot]

[img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img] [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif[/img]

[78 GHOST]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Paul Spotts:
So glad I never gave up.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

So are we Paul.

____________________________________
I work in high speed aluminum tubing

[Goathead]

Paul, minor setback (lot's of money too) [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img], glad you came out OK...



http://www.kurtspontiac.homestead.com/Dannys65GTO.html

[Paul Spotts]

thanks all. If I have another late night where I can't sleep - I'll write about some of the "good times" I had with this car.

Here is a picture of the 68. http://www.spottsperformance.com/images/6t8bird.jpg

2 years after the fire - it showed up in High Performance Pontiac

Injection is nice but I'd rather be blown as well on alcohol,with a touch of Nitromethane - stirred not shaken!

[Half-Inch Stud]

..and the TH400 lived. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif[/img]

"11.00/123MPH/1.50 60foot/29.5"/4.10:1/10"/472 #48/Flat HYD/DualQuad/Wenzler/3250Lbs
12.00/112MPH/1.61 60foot/26"/3.31:1/10"/472 #48/FlatHYD/Q-Jet/Torker/3650Lbs"

[ghaines]

that bird looks similar to one for sale in williamstown at gamberdelli's on rt.322

[1-GTO]

So thats why their called "FIRE" Birds! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif[/img] [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif[/img]


J/K Paul...glad to see you got your Pontiac back on the road again!

GTO.....Gran Turismo Omologato,True Pontiac Excitement!

[fast1970transam]

that sucks, i would so heart broken to see my car gone in a couple of minutes like that.

My 1970 firebird being turned into a 73 t/a clone g-machine. brewster green of course. lowered 1 inch. 17's all around.

['ol Pinion head]

Damn, that was an eerie story, Paul, glad to see how you rebounded & faster Firebirds & all things Pontiac & performace oriented were in your future.

['ol Pinion head]

Paul,
Just reading the title to this post before opening it up, I would have sweared you were going to recount how you got married... on Halloween

[goatnut4909]

if that happened to my gto i would start crying